Wheeler comes from a broad background of disciplines with experience as a machinist, welder, truck driver and heavy equipment mechanic as well as extensive work in fisheries, forestry and riparian ecology. His research has looked at the trophic interactions between spawning salmonids removed from streams by predators/scavengers and the pulse of nutrients provided to soil microbial communities and riparian vegetation by the decomposition of the deposited salmon carcasses. His interests also include: precision agriculture, aquaculture, hydroponics, aquaponics, LED plant growth dynamics and alternative natural energy sources.